Leader of $100 Million Medicare Fraud Scheme Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to Racketeering and Other Crimes

U.S. Attorney’s Office
October 26, 2012

Southern District of New York(212) 637-2600

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that DAVIT MIRZOYAN pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to racketeering and other crimes in connection with his involvement in an Armenian-American criminal organization involved in a wide range of criminal activity, including a massive Medicare fraud. MIRZOYAN pled guilty before United States Magistrate Judge Henry B. Pitman.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Davit Mirzoyan was a criminal parasite feeding on a grand scale off our country’s health care system for personal financial gain and draining Medicare of needed funds. His guilty plea today ensures he will be held to account for his actions.”

According to the indictment and other documents filed in this case:

From 2006 to 2010, DAVIT MIRZOYAN led a nationwide Medicare scam that fraudulently billed Medicare for over $100 million. MIRZOYAN and others created dozens of “phantom clinics,” health care providers that existed only on paper. These clinics did not have any doctors and treated no patients. At least 118 fraudulent Medicare providers, located in approximately 25 states, submitted fraudulent bills to Medicare totaling approximately $100 million, and received approximately $35.7 million.

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MIRZOYAN pled guilty to one count of participating in a racketeering conspiracy, and one count each of conspiracies to commit health care fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and identity theft. He faces a maximum penalty of 75 years in prison.

MIRZOYAN is scheduled to be sentenced on February 6, 2013, at 10:00 a.m. before United States District Court Judge Paul G. Gardephe.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York City Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, and the Department of Health and Human Services for their work in the investigation.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer Burns and Harris Fischman are in charge of the prosecution.